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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 9 Hansard (20 August) . . Page.. 2466 ..

MR CORBELL (continuing):

Current practices in the delivery of community services and facilities are based on the need to retain flexibility, to respond to emerging needs and to encourage solutions adaptable to local circumstances and priorities. The community facility land use policies reflect these new and emerging practices in service delivery.

The extent to which spare capacity exists on existing committed community facility sites is difficult to estimate. Due to constantly changing needs, especially in the maturing community, it is appropriate to undertake such assessments as and when needed. It has not, therefore, been possible to assess the total capacity of community facility sites to determine what might be available for future community facilities expansion. The review of community facility sites has adopted a precautionary approach and does not propose to reduce the existing amount of vacant useable community facilities land.

To meet the future needs of community facilities and services requires a planning policy framework that incorporates an appropriate mix of uses and the flexibility to adapt to changes over time. In particular, the policy needs to provide for housing types that are appropriate to persons with special needs.

The existing policy only makes provision for housing for aged persons or for people with other special needs on land with a community facility land use policy where such housing is part of a retirement complex, special care establishment or special dwelling.

To meet the definition of a special care establishment and retirement complex, the development must include facilities dedicated to providing supervision, treatment and specialist care, such as a nursing home. The proposed policy amends this provision and allows for housing with a range of levels of support to be given consideration where it can be demonstrated that such development would be an appropriate use of the site and that there is adequate land for community use in the locality.

This change aims to meet some of the housing needs of Canberra's ageing population and other groups who have special housing needs and to support the broader government policy to maximise housing choice for older people. A mix of housing types and sizes is needed, designed to be able to adapt to a variety of potential needs such as disabled access.

Mr Speaker, ideally these developments need to be distributed throughout Canberra. However, there is a very limited number of suitable residential land use policy sites available in the established urban areas where the need for supportive housing is greatest. To widen the opportunities for housing, it is proposed to consider development of land to the community facility land use policy for supportive housing, provided a community needs assessment demonstrates that there is sufficient land to meet the anticipated community uses in the locality. It is anticipated that some large surplus community facility sites may become available as suburbs age and the demographic needs of the area change.

In general, the redevelopment of these sites would meet both the locational requirements for disability and age-specific developments and the need for such development. To ensure that genuine disability and aged care developments are built, it is proposed to apply land use restrictions that include criteria for design, management and occupation.

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